Compressive and tensile behaviour of aluminum foams

The uniaxial compressive and tensile modulus and strength of several aluminum foams are compared with models for cellular solids. The open cell foam is well described by the model. The closed cell foams have moduli and strengths that fall well below the expected values. The reduced values are the result of defects in the cellular microstructure which cause bending rather than stretching of the cell walls. Measurement and modelling of the curvature and corrugations in the cell walls suggests that these two features account for most of the reduction in properties in closed cell foams.